CTBUH

Technical Paper
http://technicalpapers.ctbuh.org
Subject: Architecture/Design
Paper Title: The Sky Neighborhood Layout
Author(s): Mazlin Ghazali
1
Mohd. Peter Davis
2
Anniz Bajunid
3
Aliation(s):
1
Arkitek M. Ghazali

2
Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)

Publication Date: 2014
Original Publication: CTBUH 2014 Issue II
Paper Type: 1. Book chapter/Part chapter
2. Journal paper
3. Conference proceeding
4. Unpublished conference paper
5. Magazine article
6. Unpublished
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat/Author(s)
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
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Illinois Institute of Technology
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Chicago, IL 60616
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Tall buildings: design, construction, and operation | 2014 Issue II
Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou
Is Net-Zero Tall Possible?
Braced Megaframe for Torre BBVA Bancomer
Mortality Rates in Swiss High-Rises
Debating Tall: Ice on High-Rise
Talking Tall: Koreas Invisible Tower
In Numbers: Highest Helipads
CTBUH Journal
International Journal on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
Inside | 3 CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
News and Events
This Issue
Daniel Safarik,
Editor
CTBUH Latest
Antony Wood,
Executive Director
Debating Tall:
Should Tall Buildings in
Cold Climates be Designed
Specically to Stop Falling Ice?
Global News
Highlights from the CTBUH
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02
04
05
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Case Study
Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou
Richard Tomlinson II, William
Baker, Luke Leung, Shean
Chien & Yue Zhu
12
Research
Is Net-Zero Tall Possible?
Neil Chambers
An Innovative Braced
Megaframe for Torre BBVA
Bancomer in Mexico City
William H. Algaard & Tom
Wilcock
High Life in the Sky? Mortality
Rates in Swiss High-Rises
Radoslaw Panczak, Adrian
Sprri, Marcel Zwahlen,
Matthias Egger & Bruna
Galobardes
The Sky Neighborhood
Layout
Mazlin Ghazali, Mohd. Peter
Davis & Anniz Bajunid
18
26
32
40
Features
Tall Buildings in Numbers
Highest Helipads
Talking Tall: Charles Wee
Standing Out by Blending in:
Tower Innity the Invisible
Tower
Ask a CTBUH Expert:
Simon Lay
Helipads as a Tall Building
Evacuation Tool?
48
50
54
CTBUH
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Inside
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CTBUH Secures Second
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18 | Sustainability/Green/Energy Sustainability/Green/Energy | 19 CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
Introduction
Net zero buildings, also known as Zero Energy
Buildings (ZEBs), are an elusive but evergreen
goal of architects and engineers. Many
denitions exist for this building typology
(Pless 2010) however the project covered in this
paper denes ZEBs as buildings that produce
as much energy as they consume on-site. They
can be connected to the power grid. On-site
renewable energy production and net-
metering allows themto feed as much energy
into the grid as they pull fromit. ZEBs are not
required to be o-the-grid edices.

It has been widely suggested by design
professionals that ZEBs are highly implausible
for highly dense, urban inll projects. The
National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL)
reported that only 3%of buildings of four
oors or more would be net zero by 2025
(Grith 2007). However, with better
technology for simulating energy performance
for buildings on the market, and advances in
on-site energy generation technology, a much
Is Net-Zero Tall Possible?
Are Net Zero tall buildings possible in dense city cores? Or are cities destined to
lose ground on sustainable innovation to less-compact suburban areas? These
are two questions asked at the onset of an ambitious research project
undertaken by Chambers Design through the New York University (NYU)s
Green Grant Program.
Figure 1. Zipper Building, New York. Source: New York University
Sustainability/Green/Energy
Neil Chambers
Author
Neil Chambers, CEO/Founder
Chambers Design, Inc.
155 Water Street, Suite 33
Brooklyn, NY, 11201
United States
t: +1 917 592 8242
e: neil@chambersdesigninc.com
www.chambersdesigninc.com
Neil Chambers
Neil Chambers, LEED-AP has more than 20 years
experience with high-performance buildings and
renewable energy. For the last 10 years, he has lead
Chambers Design, Inc. developing design solutions
and energy modeling for award winning green
buildings. Chambers has a track record for delivering
innovative large-scale prestigious developments from
conceptual design into operation and maintenance.
He plays a key role in the technical and qualitative
results of these major projects. He contributes to
the community of design through authoring books
such as Urban Green: Architecture for the Future
and writing for Hungton Post and Metropolis
Magazines POV.
Figure 2. New York University (NYU) 2031 Core Plan.
higher percentage should be achievable than
that predicted in the NREL report.
Other factors increase the likelihood of ZEBs in
urban inll projects as well. A newfocus on all
aspects of energy eciency, fromplug-load
reduction to thermally-active surface
integration, is proving that all types of buildings
are capable of achieving substantial energy
savings. Lastly, the process of designing energy
systems has become much more iterative and
holistic, as sustainability has become the
driving form-making force for buildings.
Because of these changes in the landscape of
ZEB, the research teamundertook an in-depth
analysis of the Zipper Building (see Figure 1).
The teamincluded undergraduate and
graduate students, administrators, and others
fromthe university. The goal of this project was
not to achieve net zero, but to discover how
close the building could get to it. The second
goal for the project was to develop an
approach that could be used for any type of
capital project for the University at any location
in the world.


Background Above Ground
NewYork Universitys Master Plan for
Greenwich Village was developed as
preparation for the universitys bicentennial in
2013 (NYU 2012). The strategic plan, completed
by GrimshawArchitects, included up to 557,418
square meters of newspace needed over the
next 25 years (see Figure 2) with a split among
four large buildings. The majority of the
programming within the buildings is housing
and academic spaces.
At the beginning of the research project, the
Zipper Building, which encompasses just over
92,903 square meters, was rst envisioned for
an assortment of space requirements,
including academic, hospitality, retail,
recreational, and residential spaces. The
complexity and potential intensity of the
building made it a desirable research subject.
The assumption was that if it could be net
zero, then other, less-complex buildings could
achieve net zero. The building was to rise at
the corner of Houston and Mercer streets in
Manhattan on a site currently occupied by
Coles Sports and Recreation Center, a
ve-level building totaling 13,192 square
meters. The Zipper Building, in contrast,
would be nearly 91 meters tall at its highest
point, with ve other towers ranging from51
to 69 meters. Since the study, some
modications have changed the height of the
towers, based on NewYork City Council
requests.
Along with the specics of the case study of
the Zipper Building, it was important that the
analysis be able to not merely focus on
projects within Manhattan, but also to create
a process that was exible enough to be used
at the NewYork University (NYU)s campus in
neighboring Brooklyn, as well as buildings in
China, the Middle East, and other potential
locations for NYU satellite locations.


The Process At the Beginning
At the beginning of the research, the Zipper
Building was in late conceptual/early
schematic design phase. There were no
detailed designs for the mechanical, electrical
or architectural systems of the building. The
university was in the process of meeting with
community and city groups and committees
on modications and other early stage
approvals. An Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) was provided by the university that
outlined the majority of the energy information
for the project, such as energy consumption,
grid-sourced energy, emissions, and the
breakdown of energy types to be used for the
building (natural gas and electricity).
The EIS stated that the project would pursue a
LEED Silver certication as required by the NYU
Sustainable Design Standards and Guidelines.
The EIS indicated that energy performance
would be 20%above the ASHRAE Standard
90.1-2004 and/or attain an energy performance
score of 80 or higher under the USEPA Energy
Star program.
NYU requested that no morphological
changes be made to the Zipper Building. This
meant that the volumes of the towers, the
orientation of the building, the footprint, and
other major architectural moves should be
kept as-is. This added a level of diculty to
pursuing net zero for the building, and meant
many of the options available to new
construction were o the table. At times, it felt
as if the teamwere redesigning an existing
building within a signicant set of constraints.
Fenestration, window-to-wall ratios, and other
aspects of the skin could be altered, as long as
the overall formof the building was
maintained.


Two Software Packages for One Building
The analysis undertaken in this study used
two primary software packages for evaluating
energy consumption, and tracking energy
eciency and generation. Extensive
simulations were completed for the project,
including: solar insolation analysis, solar
thermal gain, bioclimatic integration, exterior
and interior computational uid dynamics
(CFD), HVAC energy consumption, electric
lighting analysis, daylighting analysis,
photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation
simulation, heating and cooling loads, and
insulation optimization analysis. The team
used IES-VE Pro and eQuest for all of the
energy simulations. Both packages provide a
visual virtual model for the process. eQuest
was used to allowoutside professionals to
peer-reviewthe simulations. A complete
step-by-step outline of all modeling was
provided to NYU within the nal draft of the
report.


The Process Toward Net Zero Architecture
Based on the EIS and other information
gathered at the onset of the project, it was
determined that the ASHRAE baseline energy
consumption of the Zipper Building would be
approximately 80,215 MMBTU. This level is
exactly equal to the ASHRAE 90.1-2004
standard. It also represents standard systems
within the building, such as forced-air heating
and cooling, the appropriate air exchanges
and light power densities (LPD) based on
space type. Other criteria of the building, and
therefore the energy systems, were derived
fromdrawings and renderings received from
NYU. For example, the window-to-wall ratio
varies along dierent areas of the building.
Some exterior walls bore a 9095%glazing
application, while other areas were more
modest at 50 to 75%glazing. However, in all
cases, based on the given information, all
glazing was oor-to-ceiling glass.
To attain the 20%energy savings, basic
energy-ecient measures were applied to the
building, such as high-eciency forced-air
HVAC systems, high-albedo roong materials,
occupancy sensors for lighting and climate
control, improved light power density
through basic energy-ecient light xtures
Zipper Building
+198 (60 m)
roof
+168 (51 m)
roof
+85 (26 m)
roof
+299 (91 m)
bulkhead
+275 (84 m)
roof
+78 (24 m)
roof
+158 (48 m)
roof
HOUSTONST. BLEECKER ST. PROPOSEDZIPPER BUILDING(UNIVERSITYVILLAGE INBACKGROUND)
26 | Structural Engineering Structural Engineering | 27 CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
Figure 1. Torre BBVA Bancomer, Mexico City.
LegoRogers
unique systemthat maximizes the
developable area of a prestigious location.
Through the application of a clear design
strategy and sophisticated analysis, the
project provides the client with an iconic, yet
ecient, building.


Structural System
The EBMF systemprovides the complete
lateral resistance for the tower; the seismic link
elements provide ductility.
There were a number of particular drivers on
this project that inuenced the structural
design:
The site location is characterized by deep
strata of soft soils, where foundation
capacity comes at high cost.
Mexico City is highly seismic. The soft soils
on this site give rise to the classic Mexico
City seismic hazard, where distant
subduction-zone earthquakes are
modulated and amplied to create
long-duration, long-period ground
motions.
In order to comply with local parking
requirements, extensive parking, and
Figure 2. Overview of Eccentrically Braced Megaframe (EBMF).
circulation was required in the tower
footprint, not only in the basement, but
also in the lower section of the
superstructure. Consequently the oce
accommodation starts at Level 12.

The high seismicity and poor ground
conditions created a clear rationale for a
low-weight structural solution. The unusual
location of the main elevator lobby at Level 12
meant that the primary vertical transportation
only started at this level, such that core areas
belowthis could be reduced. The combina-
tion of the low-weight driver and the desired
exibility of the height of the tower chal-
lenged the design teamto consider solutions
beyond a traditional concrete core, which
would have been highly restrictive for vehicle
circulation in the lower portions of the tower.
In order to achieve large column-free oor
plates at a lowstructural weight, composite
steel framing was selected for the oors. The
framing layout requires only a single internal
column in each of the two 33.5-by-33.5-meter
triangular spaces. Three pairs of columns ank
the vertical transportation and technical zone
in the central diagonal band. This layout also
enables provision of large external sky
gardens, without the need for transfer
structures (see Figure 3).
A clear lateral structural systemwas
developed at the competition stage of the
design, and this was maintained through to
construction. The systemcomprises an
external megaframe with six perimeter
columns, continuous eccentric bracing on the
four orthogonal sides of the building, and
intermittent eccentric bracing on the two
shorter sides of the building. The structural
systemis described as an EBMF and is the rst
of its kind to be constructed (see Figure 2).
Figure 3. Typical sky lobby oor plan. LegoRogers
Introduction
The focus of the paper is the deployment of
advanced analytical techniques in the design
of tall buildings. Using nonlinear response
history analysis, the design teamwas able to
demonstrate the likely performance of the
building during representative earthquakes.
Using the same analytical tools, the team
undertook detailed analysis at a component
level to understand the complex low-cycle
fatigue behavior of the tower and satisfy a
third-party peer reviewer of the design
methodology.
The basic capacity design procedures of
existing codes would have made this building
uneconomic and even unfeasible to build.
Through the use of nonlinear response history
analysis, the design teamhas delivered a
highly ecient and exible building with a
robust seismic resisting system.


Overview
When it opens in 2015, Torre BBVA Bancomer
will be the Latin American headquarters of
the BBVA Bancomer banking group. Designed
by an Anglo-Mexican teamof architects and
engineers, the nal level of the 52-story tower
was erected in late 2013 (see Figure 11).
Standing in the heart of Mexico Citys rapidly
developing business district, the towers
location required the design teamto contend
with notoriously challenging ground
conditions. Structural engineers fromArup
worked alongside the buildings architect
An Innovative Braced Megaframe for
Torre BBVABancomer in Mexico City
This paper discusses the design and delivery of an Eccentrically Braced
Megaframe (EBMF) for a 52-story building currently under construction in
Mexico City. The EBMF for this project has been constructed external to the
buildings envelope and at an unprecedented scale. The large spacing of the
external composite columns assisted in creating an inherently stiff structure
and enabled the number and size of columns on the faade line to be
minimized. A performance-based approach has been adopted to justify the
design of this unusual building in the highly seismic zone of Mexico City.
Tom Wilcock
Structural Engineering
William H. Algaard
Authors
WilliamH. Algaard, Associate Director
Arup
13 Fitzroy Street
London W1T 4BQ
United Kingdom
t: +44 20 7636 1531
e: william.algaard@arup.com
www.arup.com

TomWilcock, Associate
Arup
77 Water Street
New York NY 10005
United States
t: +1 212 896 3000
e: tom.wilcock@arup.com
www.arup.com
WilliamH. Algaard
William Algaard is an Associate Director at Arup
and Partners Ltd, London. He works as a structural
engineer in close collaboration with architects to
develop innovative technical solutions to a diverse
range of design problems. He has a background
in advanced analytical methods and employs rst-
principles approaches to develop ecient designs.
He seeks to optimize material use and develop more
sustainable building designs. He recently completed
a Masters Module in Sustainability Leadership at
Cambridge University. William has worked on tall
building projects in North and South America,
Europe, and Asia.

TomWilcock
Tom Wilcock leads Arups Advanced Technology and
Research team in New York. He is an Associate with
specialist expertise in performance based design
and analysis of extreme events including blast and
earthquake loading. Tom applies industry leading
analysis to the delivery of specialist structures,
including transport infrastructure, oshore platforms,
and renewable energy installations. He has worked
on high-rise buildings across the world including four
in Mexico City.
LegoRogers, a joint venture between Rogers
Stirk Harbour + Partners (London) and
Legorreta+Legorreta (Mexico City) to develop
a structural systemthat provides excellent
seismic performance and architectural
freedomin space planning.
Central to the design strategy is an
Eccentrically Braced Megaframe (EBMF),
which provides stiness, strength, and
ductility. The EBMF provides the towers lateral
stability, resisting design wind, and moderate
earthquakes elastically. Energy fromlarger
earthquakes is dissipated through nonlinear
yielding of seismic links (see Figure 2). The
nonlinear response of the Tower has been
designed using performance-based
approaches, including global response history
analysis and detailed low-cycle fatigue
modeling.
Mexico City has a subtropical highland
climate; the temperature rarely goes outside
the range of 3 C to 30 C. This benign climate
enables the EBMF to be positioned outside of
the buildings thermal envelope, maximizing
its eectiveness in resisting lateral loads and
removing the need for a structural core. This
solution helps reduce the seismic weight of
the tower and the associated foundation
loads. It also provides an interior that is largely
free of structure. The absence of a concrete
core enabled the architect to terminate the
primary elevator core at Level 11. Belowthis
level, the oor plates are open, maximizing
the net usable area of the tower.
The design teams integrated approach to
architecture and structure has produced a
40 | Architecture/Design Architecture/Design | 41 CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
Figure 1. Sky Neighborhoods apartment layout.
one level removed fromit. Four or more pairs
of these apartment units are arranged around
and accessed directly fromeach courtyard.
Elevators are suitably located o one or more
of the courtyards, providing access to the
courtyards and the adjacent units (see Figure
1). Escape staircases are located where
necessary, and the dimension and layout of
the structure allows lower-level car-parking
facilities to be provided eciently.
The basic module in this layout comprises
two double-story apartments, which occupy
three oors, one placed on top of the other,
such that access to both apartment units is on
the courtyard level, with the rst unit
connected to another oor belowthe
courtyard level, and the second joined to
another oor above the courtyard level (see
Figure 2. Basic interlocking apartment module. Figure 3. Basic apartment module stacked to create a
six-story-high courtyard.
circulation space can be minimized, even as
communal space is maximized.
In the next section, a detailed introduction to
the Sky Neighborhood concept illustrates
howduplex apartments can be arranged to
create six-story courtyards with access to all
apartment units. The section also presents
the case for the Sky Neighborhood as an
improvement to conventional types of
apartment layouts and as a cost-reducer of
key aspects of high-rise housing.
We then explain the methodology of the
study of the circulation space in the Sky
Neighborhood model, as compared with
other examples of apartment layouts. This is
followed by results and discussions, and
concluding remarks in the nal section.
Introduction to theSky Neighborhoods
Apartment Layout Concept
This concept presents the idea of multistory
housing with apartments grouped around
large covered courtyards, six stories high,
which have one side open to the exterior.
Typically, two-story apartments are stacked
one on top of the other, such that each
apartment unit is either on the access level or

The basic module in this

layout comprises two double-
story apartments, which occupy
three foors, one placed on top
of the other, such that access to
both apartment units is on the
courtyard level, with the frst
unit connected to another foor
below the courtyard level, and
the second joined to another
foor above the courtyard
level.

6 story
Six-story
courtyard
Escape
staircase
Six stories of
apartments
around
courtyard
Six-story
courtyard
WEST
EAST
NORTH
SOUTH
SUN PATH
Escape
staircase
Lift lobby &
re staircase
Escape
staircase
Six stories of
apartments
around
courtyard
Figure 2). However, stacking these apartments
on top of each other, such that the courtyards
ip fromone side to the opposite side,
produces a six-story high courtyard (see
Figure 3).
Background
Subsidized and aordable high-rise housing
has plenty of critics. Cappon wrote: Young
children in a high-rise are much more socially
deprived of neighborhood peers and activities
than their single-family-dwelling counterparts;
hence, they are poorly socialized and at too
close quarters to adults, who are tense and
irritable as a consequence (Cappon 1972).
A more even-tempered Giord, in a 2007
reviewof 129 high-rise research papers over 56
years on the human experience of tall
buildings, concluded that:
Most people living in high-rise housing
found it less satisfactory than other housing
forms
Social relations in high-rise housing were
more impersonal, and residents were less
likely to help each other than in other
housing forms
Crime and fear of crime was greater
Living in high-rises may independently
account for some suicides

However, on the issue of raising children, he
was trenchant: Numerous studies suggest
that children have problems in high-rises; none
suggest benets for them. (Giord 2007). Even
30 years earlier, Conway concluded that for
families with small children, the evidence
demonstrates that high-rise living is an
unsuitable formof accommodation. (Conway
& Adams 1977). Dalziel suggests that the
defects of high-rise housing spring mainly from
the quality of the spaces between the street
and the apartment the intermediate spaces,
The Sky Neighborhood Layout
Over the last 50 years, many researchers have concluded that high-rise
apartments by and large are not suitable for children and young families.
Creating small neighborhoods by way of sky courts can be a step toward
solving this intractable problem. We attempt to demonstrate that a prototype
design, whereby sky courts are provided to all units, with a minimal loss of
saleable area due to circulation. This study compares the residential portion of
this new concept against other types of apartment layouts, including single-
loaded balcony corridor access, with double-loaded central corridor access,
central-lobby tower blocks, and scissor style internal and external corridors.
Mohd. Peter Davis
Architecture/Design
Mazlin Ghazali Anniz Bajunid
Authors
Mazlin Ghazali, Principal
Mohd. Peter Davis
Arkitek M. Ghazali
19-1, Jalan 1/76, Desa Pandan
55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
t: +60 12 221 1652, f: +60 3 9281 1140
e: tessellar@gmail.com
www.tslr.net

Anniz Bajunid, Senior Lecturer
Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor D.E., Malaysia
t: +60 3 5521 1553, f: +60 3 5544 4353
e: toanniz@gmail.com
http://fspu.uitm.edu.my/cebs/
Mazlin Ghazali set up Arkitek M. Ghazali in 1993.
Since 2000 this rm has built up nearly 12,000 units
of aordable housing projects, many using system
construction methods. Mazlin has also collaborated
with his co-authors in thermal comfort and courtyard-
based housing layouts which has yielded patents
for the key aspects of that work. He is now working
on commercializing the new Sky Neighborhoods
concept providing cost ecient courtyards to high-rise
apartments.

Anniz Bajunid is trained as an architect with
experience in Malaysia, United States, United Kingdom,
and Japan. He is presently a senior lecturer and a PhD
candidate at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. His
current research pursuits are in understanding the
social and physical dynamics of tessellation planning,
particularly the environment-behavior of cul-de-sac
courtyard micro-neighborhoods.

Mohd Peter Davis is a biochemist from UK. He was a
lecturer and researcher in modern sheep production
in Malaysia. Struck by the absurdity that sheep in
barns were living more comfortably than humans in
Malaysian terrace houses, he changed his research
direction to design and build cool, aordable IBS
houses on campus which led to his collaboration with
his co-authors Mazlin Ghazali and Anniz Bajunid.
and laments themas weird, anonymous
spaceneither public nor private.
Indeed, high-rise housing necessitates
providing access fromthe building entrance
at street level to the front door of every
apartment on the upper levels of the
buildings. Elevators, staircases, lobbies, and
corridors provide passage to individual
apartment units.
And so it is that conventional high-rise
apartment layouts are often categorized by
the method of access to each apartment for
example, single- or double-loaded corridors
for slab blocks, and central lobbies for tower
blocks. However, all these alternatives involve
spaces such as lobbies, elevators, and
corridors that are not only costly, but are not
considered saleable space. To save costs,
these areas are largely devoid of plant life,
unsuitable for childrens outdoor play, and
usually used by residents who remain
strangers to each other.


TheSky Neighborhood Concept
This paper proposes the Sky Neighborhood
concept as a newkind of arrangement,
whereby access to each unit is through
six-story-high landscaped courtyards. In this
way, corridors can be eliminated, and as such,
not only can the social and environmental
quality of intermediate spaces in high-rise
housing be improved; the cost of construct-
ing unsaleable circulation space might be
reduced. Through a comparison with a
selection of other types of high-rise housing
layouts, its aimis to demonstrate that, indeed,

Mortality decreased with increasing foors: residents on the ground

foor had a 22% greater hazard of death from any cause compared to
residents of the eighth foor and above.
Panczak, et al. page 32
40 | Architecture/Design CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
Background
Subsidized and aordable high-rise housing
has plenty of critics. Cappon wrote: Young
children in a high-rise are much more socially
deprived of neighborhood peers and activities
than their single-family-dwelling counterparts;
hence, they are poorly socialized and at too
close quarters to adults, who are tense and
irritable as a consequence (Cappon 1972).
A more even-tempered Giord, in a 2007
review of 129 high-rise research papers over 56
years on the human experience of tall
buildings, concluded that:
Most people living in high-rise housing
found it less satisfactory than other housing
forms
Social relations in high-rise housing were
more impersonal, and residents were less
likely to help each other than in other
housing forms
Crime and fear of crime was greater
Living in high-rises may independently
account for some suicides

However, on the issue of raising children, he
was trenchant: Numerous studies suggest
that children have problems in high-rises; none
suggest benets for them. (Giord 2007). Even
30 years earlier, Conway concluded that for
families with small children, the evidence
demonstrates that high-rise living is an
unsuitable form of accommodation. (Conway
& Adams 1977). Dalziel suggests that the
defects of high-rise housing spring mainly from
the quality of the spaces between the street
and the apartment the intermediate spaces,
The Sky Neighborhood Layout
Over the last 50 years, many researchers have concluded that high-rise
apartments by and large are not suitable for children and young families.
Creating small neighborhoods by way of sky courts can be a step toward
solving this intractable problem. We attempt to demonstrate that a prototype
design, whereby sky courts are provided to all units, with a minimal loss of
saleable area due to circulation. This study compares the residential portion of
this new concept against other types of apartment layouts, including single-
loaded balcony corridor access, with double-loaded central corridor access,
central-lobby tower blocks, and scissor style internal and external corridors.
Mohd. Peter Davis
Architecture/Design
Mazlin Ghazali Anniz Bajunid
Authors
Mazlin Ghazali, Principal
Mohd. Peter Davis
Arkitek M. Ghazali
19-1, Jalan 1/76, Desa Pandan
55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
t: +60 12 221 1652, f: +60 3 9281 1140
e: tessellar@gmail.com
www.tslr.net

Anniz Bajunid, Senior Lecturer
Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor D.E., Malaysia
t: +60 3 5521 1553, f: +60 3 5544 4353
e: toanniz@gmail.com
http://fspu.uitm.edu.my/cebs/
Mazlin Ghazali set up Arkitek M. Ghazali in 1993.
Since 2000 this rm has built up nearly 12,000 units
of aordable housing projects, many using system
construction methods. Mazlin has also collaborated
with his co-authors in thermal comfort and courtyard-
based housing layouts which has yielded patents
for the key aspects of that work. He is now working
on commercializing the new Sky Neighborhoods
concept providing cost ecient courtyards to high-rise
apartments.

Anniz Bajunid is trained as an architect with
experience in Malaysia, United States, United Kingdom,
and Japan. He is presently a senior lecturer and a PhD
candidate at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. His
current research pursuits are in understanding the
social and physical dynamics of tessellation planning,
particularly the environment-behavior of cul-de-sac
courtyard micro-neighborhoods.

Mohd Peter Davis is a biochemist from UK. He was a
lecturer and researcher in modern sheep production
in Malaysia. Struck by the absurdity that sheep in
barns were living more comfortably than humans in
Malaysian terrace houses, he changed his research
direction to design and build cool, aordable IBS
houses on campus which led to his collaboration with
his co-authors Mazlin Ghazali and Anniz Bajunid.
and laments them as weird, anonymous
space neither public nor private.
Indeed, high-rise housing necessitates
providing access from the building entrance
at street level to the front door of every
apartment on the upper levels of the
buildings. Elevators, staircases, lobbies, and
corridors provide passage to individual
apartment units.
And so it is that conventional high-rise
apartment layouts are often categorized by
the method of access to each apartment for
example, single- or double-loaded corridors
for slab blocks, and central lobbies for tower
blocks. However, all these alternatives involve
spaces such as lobbies, elevators, and
corridors that are not only costly, but are not
considered saleable space. To save costs,
these areas are largely devoid of plant life,
unsuitable for childrens outdoor play, and
usually used by residents who remain
strangers to each other.


The Sky Neighborhood Concept
This paper proposes the Sky Neighborhood
concept as a new kind of arrangement,
whereby access to each unit is through
six-story-high landscaped courtyards. In this
way, corridors can be eliminated, and as such,
not only can the social and environmental
quality of intermediate spaces in high-rise
housing be improved; the cost of construct-
ing unsaleable circulation space might be
reduced. Through a comparison with a
selection of other types of high-rise housing
layouts, its aim is to demonstrate that, indeed,
Architecture/Design | 41 CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
Figure 1. Sky Neighborhoods apartment layout.
one level removed from it. Four or more pairs
of these apartment units are arranged around
and accessed directly from each courtyard.
Elevators are suitably located o one or more
of the courtyards, providing access to the
courtyards and the adjacent units (see Figure
1). Escape staircases are located where
necessary, and the dimension and layout of
the structure allows lower-level car-parking
facilities to be provided eciently.
The basic module in this layout comprises
two double-story apartments, which occupy
three oors, one placed on top of the other,
such that access to both apartment units is on
the courtyard level, with the rst unit
connected to another oor below the
courtyard level, and the second joined to
another oor above the courtyard level (see
Figure 2. Basic interlocking apartment module. Figure 3. Basic apartment module stacked to create a
six-story-high courtyard.
circulation space can be minimized, even as
communal space is maximized.
In the next section, a detailed introduction to
the Sky Neighborhood concept illustrates
how duplex apartments can be arranged to
create six-story courtyards with access to all
apartment units. The section also presents
the case for the Sky Neighborhood as an
improvement to conventional types of
apartment layouts and as a cost-reducer of
key aspects of high-rise housing.
We then explain the methodology of the
study of the circulation space in the Sky
Neighborhood model, as compared with
other examples of apartment layouts. This is
followed by results and discussions, and
concluding remarks in the nal section.
Introduction to the Sky Neighborhoods
Apartment Layout Concept
This concept presents the idea of multistory
housing with apartments grouped around
large covered courtyards, six stories high,
which have one side open to the exterior.
Typically, two-story apartments are stacked
one on top of the other, such that each
apartment unit is either on the access level or

The basic module in this

layout comprises two double-
story apartments, which occupy
three foors, one placed on top
of the other, such that access to
both apartment units is on the
courtyard level, with the frst
unit connected to another foor
below the courtyard level, and
the second joined to another
foor above the courtyard
level.

6

s
t
o
r
y
Six-story
courtyard
Escape
staircase
Six stories of
apartments
around
courtyard
Six-story
courtyard
WEST
EAST
NORTH
SOUTH
S
U
N

P
A
T
H
Escape
staircase
Lift lobby &
re staircase
Escape
staircase
Six stories of
apartments
around
courtyard
Figure 2). However, stacking these apartments
on top of each other, such that the courtyards
ip from one side to the opposite side,
produces a six-story high courtyard (see
Figure 3).
42 | Architecture/Design CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
Social and Environmental Benets
The courtyards six stories high, open to the
sun and air on one side are suitable for
planting medium-sized trees, shrubs, and
grass, making them more attractive for social
and recreational use. In equatorial Malaysia,
the location of the test case, the blocks are
best aligned north, south, east, and west, such
that all the four courtyards can get sunlight
(see Figure 1). This design thus admits plenty
of light and ventilation but provides cover
from direct rainfall.
Each courtyard will have a communal
semi-private space shared by residents who
live in the apartments around it. In addition, in
front of most of the apartments will be a
front-yard garden that can act as a buer
between the common space outside and the
private domain inside. This arrangement of
small groups of apartments surrounding a
communal courtyard makes it easy for
neighbors to get to know each other. Children
can play in the courtyards under the watchful
eyes of their parents and neighbors (see
Figure 4).
Potential for Reducing Cost
Perhaps the most important cost feature is
that, unlike conventional sky courts or sky
terraces, the courtyards in the sky
neighborhoods layout are not located in
such a way that potential saleable or rentable
oor space is sacriced. Thus, there is no loss
of potential revenue.
Apart from this opportunity-cost advantage,
there are potential cost savings resulting from
the omission of corridor space, a reduction in
the number of required elevators, and the
omission of re doors to each apartment.
Figure 4. Six-story-high courtyard.
Table 1. Comparison of the eciency of the corridors and lifts between dierent types of apartment layout.
Type of Apartment
Access
Example
% circulation and
services on each
access oor
% sellable apartment
built up area each
access oor
Units accessed
on each access
oor
External corridor or
balcony access
413, Woodlands Drive 4,
Singapore
18.80% 81.20% 6
Central corridor Binapuri, Selangor, Malaysia 16.03% 83.97% 8
Central corridor Dataran Mantin, Mantin, Malaysia 14.06% 85.94% 23
External scissors
corridor
Robin Hood Gardens, London 12.58% 87.42% 39
Central lobby Blues Point Tower, Sydney 11.90% 88.10% 7
Internal scissors
corridor
Unite dHabitation, Marseilles 8.12% 91.88% 58
Aordable Sky
Neighborhood
concept example
Circulation and services 5.10%
13.49%
80.82%
internal
86.51% 36
Public portion of courtyard green 8.39%
5.69%
front yard
Circulation spaces corridors, stairs, elevators,
lobbies, etc. are minimized to less than any
existing type of apartment. Indeed, in the
design prototype presented here, there are no
corridors. The communal courtyard and
circulation spaces, including the elevator
lobbies and staircases, occupy less than 5% of
the total built-up area on the residential oors
(see Table 1).
The elevators only need to stop at every third
oor, thus reducing elevator waiting times,
elevator provision, and associated costs. In this
example, only two elevators (with 13 elevator
stops) are provided. However, to cater to larger
numbers of residents, the passenger elevators
are large enough to double as service elevators,
suitable for stretchers and the transport of
large furniture. This cost-saving feature
becomes even more prominent when
compared to supertall buildings, which
typically require two separate banks of
elevators. For example, Singapores Pinnacle@
Duxton is a 50-story building that has a set of
elevators servicing oors 1 to 25, and another
set for the 26
th
to the 50
th
oor.
In case of re, smoke a major cause of
fatalities is easily dissipated from the
courtyards, which form an important part of
the escape route. Because apartments open to
a well-ventilated access route, according to
Malaysian re protection rules, the apartment
entrance doors need not be re doors. In
addition, the courtyards can be seen as safety
platforms: every apartment is at most two
stories above one of these platforms. This
makes escape and reghting easier.
It is true that the construction of the courtyard
structure and the provision of the soft and hard
landscape will add substantial cost, but the
courtyard areas will gain features that aid the
selling of the garden-apartment units. The
front-yard garden can be allocated directly to
an individual apartment and may be counted
as built-up area (see Figure 5). The communal
courtyards can be marketed as an amenity at
the doorstep of every garden apartment.
Finally, it is argued that the courtyards alleviate
the sense of overcrowding that can be found in
aordable and mid-market, high-density
Architecture/Design | 43 CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
30-STORY DESIGN PROTOTYPE
Plot ratio 4.9
Density 163 units/acre
Communal courtyard
70% of plot area, 18 m
2
/
unit (194.6 sf/unit)
Communal courtyard and
private front yard garden
107% land area
Table 2. High plot ratio, high-density; more green area
is created than development land used.
Side corridor or
balcony
Single-loading corridor on one side of a row of
apartments
Narrow-slab block
Intermediate
double aspect units
Central corridor
Double-loading corridor in the middle of two rows
of apartments
Wide-slab block
Intermediate single
aspect units
Central Lobby
Apartments are directly accessed from the central
lobby
Tower block Corner apartments
Alternate oor
corridors
Single-loading corridor on one side of a row of two-
story apartments or maisonettes
Narrow-slab block
Double aspect
maisonettes
Scissors corridor
Double-loading corridor in the middle of two rows
of two-double-story apartments or maisonettes
Narrow-slab block
Double aspect
maisonettes
Table 3. Types of apartment layout.
Figure 5. Courtyard arrangement.
high-rise housing. The high-density and plot
ratio of the design prototype would contribute
to savings on land cost (see Table 2).


Methodology
Comparing Sky Neighborhood Apartments
to Existing Apartment Layouts
The main goal of this study is to compare the
area-use eciency of a design prototype of this
concept against other existing types of
apartments. To achieve this goal:
1. We analyze existing apartment building
layouts.
2. We then break down apartment building
areas into dierent use categories for
analysis.
3. The same analysis is conducted against the
Sky Neighborhood design prototype
example.
4. A comparison is then made between
existing apartment building types and the
aordable Sky Neighborhood example.

Conventional High-rise Apartment Design
All high-rise housing requires a solution for
providing access from the street level public
domain into the building, through elevators to
the upper levels of the building, then from the
elevators to the individual apartments.
High-rise apartment design can be classied
according to the way the apartment units are
arranged and how access to each unit is
provided (see Table 3).
A collection of plans one example from each
of these existing types of apartments was
assembled. Apartment buildings with
alternate-oor corridors and scissors corridors
are not common. The most
famous example of the latter is
the Unite dHabitation, designed
by Le Corbusier and built in
Marseilles and several other
locations. A well-known example
of an apartment with alternate-
oor corridors is Robin Hood
Gardens in London, designed by
Alison and Peter Smithson.
The remaining typologies are
ubiquitous. The plans of the two
double-loaded corridor
examples were taken from the
lead authors architectural
practice. The sample of a
single-loaded corridor was taken
from the Singapore Housing Development
Board. The oor plans were drawn based on
information provided by the Boards website.
This is a small set of examples with selections
of the single-loaded and double-loaded
corridors, as well as the tower-block elevator-
lobby access, which was based on the
authors available resources. The authors were
condent that, at this exploratory stage, the
dierences between the Sky
Neighborhoods and these examples would
be sucient to enable preliminary
conclusions.
In the analysis of the following examples, we
look at the typical oor or oors that are
accessed from a single corridor or lobby. The
areas within the circulation spaces including
the elevator lobbies, public staircases, and
corridors and services were measured. The
space taken up by voids, including the
elevator cores, is excluded.
There are two factors concerning
circulation that were taken into account:
the rst is the calculation of the circulation
area, expressed as a percentage of the total
built-up area of the relevant oor or oors.
The lower the percentage, the more
ecient the layout.
The second factor is the number of units
accessed by a single bank of elevators. The
grouping of elevators has a signicant
eect on their ecient use. Placing
elevators next to each other in one lobby is
more ecient than having them spread
out over dierent locations. Having many
units share a single bank of elevators is
more ecient than having fewer.

Single-loaded corridor
In this type of apartment layout, the apart-
ments are all placed in a row on one side of a
corridor, and which is open on the opposite
side. The apartments can have windows
along the corridor, which are useful for natural
Communal
green area
Privately
owned front
yard
44 | Architecture/Design CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
light and ventilation, but obviously impinge
on the privacy of the homes. The example
given is the 413 Woodlands Drive 4 in
Singapore (see Figures 6 and 7).
Double-loaded/central corridors
The central corridor is more ecient than the
single-loaded corridor example, serving
apartments on both sides. However, the
apartments it serves can only have windows
on the external wall. The apartments may
have internal air wells alongside the double-
loaded corridors (see Figure 8). Nevertheless,
the ventilation and light from these air wells
are inferior to windows on the external wall.
Central Lobby
In the tower block, apartments are positioned
around a central elevator lobby. In this set-up,
there is a minimum of corridor space. On the
other hand, the number of units that can be
served by the single elevator lobby is limited.
Here, the ecient arrangement of circulation
space is oset by the rather inecient sharing
of elevators by a small number of housing
units (see Figures 9 and 10).
Internal Scissors Corridor
The scissors corridor is an especially clever
innovation, rst introduced by Le Corbusier in
Unite dHabitation in Marseilles in 1952 (see
Figures 11 and 12). Here, internal double-
loading corridors serve two rows of
maisonettes opposite each other in an
interlocking arrangement. These corridors
and the skip-stop elevators are only
required to serve every three oors. The
percentage of oor space taken up by the
central corridor is very low only 8.12% and
the elevators in this case need only stop on
one oor and skip the other two. That one
stop serves 58 units. This is an extremely
ecient layout, and is not more common
because the corridor in this type of layout is
rather long, narrow, and has virtually no
windows. Also, the apartment units are also
designed to be long and narrow, with
bedrooms that hardly seem to accommodate
a double bed. Still, considerable ingenuity has
been applied to securing the ecient
deployment of circulation space and
elevators.
External Scissors Corridors
In the 1970s, Alison and Peter Smithson
developed an improvement on the scissors-
corridor layout concept by designing
single-loaded external corridors (see Figures
13 and 14). Here, the quality of the access
corridor was much improved. The wide,
well-ventilated external- access corridors were
promoted as streets in the air.


Figure 6. 413 Woodlands Drive 4, Singapore.

The Sky Neighborhoods concept can be

seen as a relocation of the spaces set aside for
amenities and communal gardens to the front of
each apartment. It can be argued that this is
where apartment dwellers can most easily enjoy
the open space and communal amenity. It also
has the benefcial side effect that, in this
arrangement, corridors are eliminated.

Figure 7. 413 Woodlands Drive 4, Singapore Single-loaded corridor.
Architecture/Design | 45 CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
Figure 10. Blues Point Tower, Sydney Central lobby.
Source: French 2008
Figure 12. Unite dHabitation, Marseilles Internal Scis-
sor Corridor. Gunawan Wibisono/CC BY-SA 2.5
Figure 9. Blues Point Tower, Sydney.
Hpeterswald/CC-BY-SA-2.0
Figure 11. Unite dHabitation, Marseilles. Greg Maxwell/CC BY-SA 2.5 Figure 8. Dataran Mantin Apartments
Double-loaded/central corridors.
TYPICAL PLANS
TYPICAL SECTION
Results
Constructed-area Breakdown Comparison
To investigate the circulation space advantage
of the Sky Neighborhoods apartment, an
analysis of the constructed area of the
30-story design prototype was undertaken.
Space usage was divided into ve categories:
apartment interior, apartment exterior (the
front yard of the units), communal courtyard
area, circulation space (comprising corridors,
elevator lobby, and staircases), and services.
The tabulation below is that of a typical
courtyard and the three stories of apartments
accessed from it. The internal area of the
apartments is calculated across three stories.
The garden area is the front-yard green that
is found only on the courtyard level. The
communal courtyard is the landscaped area
shared by the residents that is also used to
access the apartments. The circulation area
comprises the staircases over three oors and
the elevator lobby at the courtyard level. The
services available include the refuse collection
center and service risers.
Table 1 shows that with the Sky
Neighborhoods, the circulation space
occupies only 4.32% of the total oor area
served by the corridor. With service areas
added in, the percentage for circulation plus
services is only 5.1%. This is a remarkably low
gure. As shown in Table 1, it is substantially
more ecient than any previous design for
tall residential buildings. Even the scissors
corridor access of Unite dHabitation with its
long, windowless central corridor, and narrow
apartment units at 8.12% is less ecient
than the Sky Neighborhood. The
corresponding gures in Table 1 for other
layouts range from 11.9 to 18.8%.
This substantial eciency improvement is all
the more remarkable, because it is achieved
by making the apartment design more
attractive, not less, and by extending the
benets of a landscaped courtyard to every
46 | Architecture/Design CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
Figure 13. Robin Hood Gardens, London. Steve Cadman/CC-BY-SA-2.0
Figure 14. Robin Hood Gardens, London External scissors corridor. Source: French 2008
apartment. Indeed, the introduction of the
courtyard is the key.
Most apartments will have some provision for
communal amenities and gardens; these have
conventionally been provided on the
ground-oor deck or the grounds around the
building. They have also been provided on
the rooftops. As illustrated at the beginning of
this paper, the provision of these amenities,
whether on the ground, in a sky court, or a
landscaped open deck on an upper oor, not
only incur additional construction cost, but
also represent an opportunity cost the loss
of space within the building envelope that
could otherwise be used to build even more
apartments or other saleable space.


Discussion
The Sky Neighborhoods concept can be
seen as a relocation of the spaces set aside for
amenities and communal gardens to the front
of each apartment. It can be argued that this
is where apartment dwellers can most easily
enjoy the open space and communal
amenity. It also has the benecial side eect
that, in this arrangement, corridors are
eliminated.
It is possible to counter that the courtyard
area, or a portion of it, should actually be
counted as circulation space. However, doing
so contrasts with conventional categorization
of circulation spaces on architectural plans.
The corridor is unequivocally categorized as a
mono-functional circulation space: its
purpose is to allow for movement from one
area to another. On the other hand, any space
or room will have within it some circulation
space. For example, a living room contains
within it a portion that can be used to move
around, but by convention we simply call it
the living room, and when one measures
and displays its area, one doesnt subtract
away the circulation space within that room.
In the same way, it is consistent with accepted
convention that one measures and displays
the courtyard area without deducting the
circulation space within it under a separate
category.
Further, circulation space is only one of several
factors that eectively reduce saleable space.
One can contend that the public portion of
the courtyard should be in the same category
as circulation space, in the sense that it
reduces the net saleable area of apartments.
This is true enough. However, when we
compare the eciency of the design in terms
of the percentage of total saleable built-up
area, the Sky Neighborhoods design
prototype is still quite good at 86.51%, slightly
less than that of Blues Point Tower (88.1%),
Robin Hood Gardens (87.42%), and Unite
dHabitation (91.88%).
However, this is not a fair comparison. The
authors have only been analyzing the areas
accessed from a typical corridor, which in
both the cases of Unite dHabitation and the
design prototype, involves only three oors. In
fact, the Unite dHabitation is famously raised
on pilotis, with an open deck on the ground
oor, and a rooftop deck and swimming pool,
both of which serve as communal spaces.
This means that two out of 18 levels (11.11%) in
this building have no saleable oor area. A Sky
Neighborhoods apartment, designed without
communal amenities on the roof top and
with a minimum of communal provisions on
the ground oor, could prove to have a higher
percentage of saleable area. This comparison
has not been formally conducted, but further
study can easily settle this issue. This same
argument also applies to Blues Point Tower
and Robin Hood Gardens.
Apartments are conventionally designed as
slab or tower blocks, where the maximum
width of the building is constrained by the
Architecture/Design | 47 CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue II
Figure 15. View of Sky Neighborhoods tower.
need for the apartments to have windows to
the open air. For this reason, if one wants to
increase the number of units, the easiest way
to do so would be to increase the number of
oors. However, the cost of construction
increases disproportionately with the height
of the building. On the other hand, it is not
easy to avoid increasing the height just by
making the building wider. Air wells within
the building that open to the sky have to be
introduced to bring light and air into the
building interior, or else, the building plan is
split with narrow recesses that do the same
thing. The large courtyards in Sky Neighbor-
hood apartments can be seen as a useful
and attractive spatial device to bring in light
and air into the interior of an apartment
building.
The provision of the spacious sky courts, large
elevator cabins, and tall elevator lobby
ceilings should help overcome the sense of
crowding that is perceived in conventional
high-rise housing.


Conclusion
The Sky Neighborhoodconcept, in providing
a six-story-high courtyard in front of every
duplex apartment, while using that courtyard
as communal open space adjoining privately
owned gardens, aims to ameliorate the social
defects of high-rise, high-density housing. At
the same time, by using the courtyards to
provide access to each home, construction
cost is lowered through reduced circulation
spaces and elevators (see Figure 15).
This study has found that a Sky
Neighborhood design uses substantially less
circulation space when compared to six other
types of apartments. Indeed, it can be said
that in the Sky Neighborhood model,
corridors were eliminated and replaced with
courtyards.
However, the study of the Sky
Neighborhood concept can still be
considered to be at a preliminary stage, as
there are many other aspects that need to be
thoroughly examined. For example:
Make a more detailed comparison with a
carefully selected group of comparators
that takes into account not only the
circulation space, but also the services, the
spaces set aside as amenities, including sky
courts, void decks, and communal facilities,
as well as the internal and external saleable
apartment area.
Investigate in detail if fewer elevators can
be provided in a Sky Neighborhood
apartment building when compared to
conventional apartment-building types.
Qualitatively and quantitatively compare
the Sky Neighborhood concept with the
more recent innovations in apartment
layout design, especially those from
Singapore that have included Sky-rise
greenery on the upper levels of high-rise,
high-density housing.
Consider the eects of limiting disabled
access by all units being two stories, with
internal stairs.

Unless otherwise noted, all photography credits
in this paper are to Arkitek M. Ghazali


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